Freedom and Capitalism: Essays on Christian Politics and Economics

The relationship between Christianity, freedom, and capitalism has been a subject of scholarly study for centuries. In this volume, John Robbins argues that political and economic freedom are the results of Biblical Christianity. Political freedom and capitalism arose in Northwestern Europe and North America after the Christian Reformation of the 16th Century, and they are unique in world history. The nations and peoples that heard and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Reformers quickly became free and prosperous on a scale previously unimaginable.

Some historians and economists have denied any causal connection between Christianity, freedom, and capitalism, but they are able to deny this connection only by ignoring clear philosophical, economic, legal, sociological, and historical evidence demonstrating that Christianity is the source of capitalism. Laissez-faire capitalism, which is the only moral economic system, is in fact the economic system of Christianity. This is the topic for the 2008 Worldview Essay Contest.

Dr John W. Robbins attended Grove City College (A.B. 1969) and The Johns Hopkins University (M.A. 1970, Ph.D. 1973). He has served as chief of staff for a Member of Congress, editor of The Freeman magazine, Economist for The Heritage Foundation, and Professor of Political Philosophy in The Freedom School.

Table of Contents:

Politics
The Founder of Western Civilization
The Sine Qua Non of Enduring Freedom
Some Problems with Natural Law
The Political Philosophy of the Founding Fathers
The Bible and the Draft
The Messianic Character of American Foreign Policy
Truth and Foreign Policy
Compassionate Fascism
Conservatism: An Autopsy
Rightwing Radical Chic
The Reconstructionist Assault on Freedom
Roman Catholic Totalitarianism
The Relation of Church and State (Charles Hodge)
Abortion, the Christian, and the State
The Ethics and Economics of Health Care
The Chickens’ Homecoming (John Whitehead)
The Coming Caesars (John Whitehead)
Rebuilding American Freedom in the Twenty-First Century
The Religious Wars of the Twenty-First Century

Economics
The Failure of Secular Economics
The Promise of Christian Economics
Teaching Economics from the Bible
The Neo-Evangelical Assault on Capitalism
The Reformed Assault on Capitalism
The Roman Catholic Assault on Capitalism
How Romanism Ruined America
Not Yours to Give (Edward Ellis)
Money, Freedom, and the Bible
The Case Against Indexation
Is Christianity Tied to Any Political or Economic System?
Ecology: The Abolition of Man
Scripture Index
Index
The Crisis of Our Time
Intellectual Ammunition